Cover -- Half-Title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Dedication -- 1. Complexity and Systems Thinking -- 1.1. Introduction: complexity as a problem -- 1.2. Complexity in perspective -- 1.2.1. Etymology and semantics -- 1.2.2. Methods proposed for dealing with complexity from the Middle Ages to the 17th Century and their current outfalls -- 1.3. System-based current methods proposed for dealing with complexity -- 1.3.1. Evolution of system-based methods in the 20th Century -- 1.3.2. The emergence of a new science of mind -- 1.4. Systems thinking and structuralism -- 1.4.1. Systems thinking -- 1.4.2. Structuralism -- 1.4.3. Systems modeling -- 1.5. Biodata of two figureheads in the development of cybernetics -- 1.5.1. Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972) -- 1.5.2. Heinz von Förster (1911-2002) -- 1.6. References -- 2. Agent-based Modeling of Human Organizations -- 2.1. Introduction -- 2.2. Concept of agenthood in the technical world -- 2.2.1. Some words about agents explained -- 2.2.2. Some implementations of the agenthood paradigm -- 2.3. Concept of agenthood in the social world -- 2.3.1. Cursory perspective of agenthood in the social world -- 2.3.2. Organization as a collection of agents -- 2.4. BDI agents as models of organization agents -- 2.4.1. Description of BDI agents -- 2.4.2. Comments on the structural components of BDI agents -- 2.5. Patterns of agent coordination -- 2.5.1. Organizational coordination -- 2.5.2. Contracting for coordination -- 2.5.3. Coordination by multi-agent planning -- 2.6. Negotiation patterns -- 2.7. Theories behind the organization theory -- 2.7.1. Structural and functional theories -- 2.7.2. Cognitive and behavioral theories -- 2.7.3. Organization theory and German culture -- 2.8. Organizations and complexity -- 2.8.1. Structural complexity.

2.8.2. Behavioral complexity in group decision-making -- 2.8.3. Autonomous agents and complexity in organization operations: inexorable stretch to artificial organization -- 2.9. References -- 3. Complexity and Chaos -- 3.1. Introduction -- 3.2. Complexity and chaos in physics and chemistry -- 3.2.1. Introductory considerations -- 3.2.2. Quadratic iterator modeling the dynamic behavior of animal and plant populations -- 3.2.3. Traces of chaotic behavior in different contexts -- 3.3. Order out of chaos -- 3.3.1. Determinism out of an apparent random algorithm -- 3.3.2. Chaos game and MRCM (Multiple Reduction Copy Machine) -- 3.3.3. Randomness and its foolery -- 3.4. Chaos in organizations -- the certainty of uncertainty -- 3.4.1. Chaos and big data: what is data deluge? -- 3.4.2. Change management and adaptation of information systems -- 3.5. References -- Conclusion -- C.1. Some general considerations -- C.2. Complexity versus chaos -- C.2.1. Complex systems contain many constituents interdependent and interacting nonlinearly. -- C.2.2. A complex system possesses a structure spanning several levels -- C.2.3. A complex system is capable of emerging behavior -- C.2.4. Complexity involves reciprocal action between chaos and order -- C.2.5. Complexity involves interplay between cooperation and competition -- C.3. References -- Appendix 1: Notions of Graph Theory for Analyzing Social Networks -- Appendix 2: Time Series Analysis with a View to Deterministic Chaos -- References -- Index -- Other titles from iSTE in Systems and Industrial Engineering -- Robotics -- EULA.